i would encourage the president to work with harry reid and senate democrats to put forward their own alternative and hopefully go to conference and negotiate something between the house and the senate because both sides agree that it's better to use a scalpel than a hatchet. >> you're describing something there's just no way is going to be done in 48 hours so as much as you're optimistic -- >> i'm noptimistic. >> that's charming. >> chris frates with "national journal." i have a story the republican leadership wants to see if the sky falls, they will need to negotiate on sequester, if the cuts are not that bad they think they get some leverage and can roll the debate on the across-the-board spending cuts into a larger one about the debt ceiling this summer. is that a prudent way for house republicans to go forward on this, taking a wait and see? shouldn't your leaders be showing more leadership here? >> well i'm not sure that wait and see is the appropriate terminology. i would simply say that we've done all we can in the house of representatives. we can't negotiate with ourselves an